jpk Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Evening all. So the 110 is due to go for a full external cage next week. We're planning a trip across Africa next year and I want to incorparate as many useful features into the design of the cage as possible. I want the cage for safety reasons and it will double up as the roofrack. So, what do you think? Spotlight mounts? Brush wires mounts? Somewhere to put the waffle boards? Plywood on the roof or wire mesh? There will be a roof tent on the roof as well, so front or back? Anything you may have seen somewhere and thought it was a good idea. Any ideas gratefully received as always. Thanks JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bishbosh Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 All of the above, including rear work light mount except don't put ply on the roof - bluddy heavy stuff. You might also want to consider mounts for a side awning to keep that African sun off your beer at meal times.. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Evening all.So the 110 is due to go for a full external cage next week. We're planning a trip across Africa next year and I want to incorparate as many useful features into the design of the cage as possible. I want the cage for safety reasons and it will double up as the roofrack. So, what do you think? Spotlight mounts? Brush wires mounts? Somewhere to put the waffle boards? Plywood on the roof or wire mesh? There will be a roof tent on the roof as well, so front or back? Anything you may have seen somewhere and thought it was a good idea. Any ideas gratefully received as always. Thanks JP Save your money and fit a bigger fuel tank and a fill through tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 personally, i wouldn't bother with the cage, its a waste of money and you'd be better off putting an ex-mil internal roll hoop inside the truck, to give you a bit of roll-over protection, you can fit the roof tent to a set of roof bars and add a small rack to hold your other bits... ..but if you realy want a cage........... don't put fuel or water up there, the cans are realy heavy when full, and a right sod to lift up there. put the roof tent at the back, they are heavy and it puts the load further back, over your rear springs, and it'll be a bit better with regard to wind noise... the only other things i'd put up there are sand ladders/ waffles (then you don't have to put them back in the truck when muddy) high-lift, and a second spare wheel (as hopefully you wont need it) this lot will push you up to, or over 100kg, and you realy don't want to go much over that. as for cage mounts, a couple of driving lights at the front would be good, but don't go mad, a work light at the rear, bush wires if you want them, a CB ariel mount, mounts for high-lift + sand ladders..... we went to morocco this summer, and i'm glad we never loaded our roof up too much, the tent, high-lift, waffles and spare wheel were quite enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 It never ceases to amaze me how little idea the folks in this dear isle of ours have about overlanding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bill van snorkle Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 It never ceases to amaze me how little idea the folks in this dear isle of ours have about overlanding It always amuses me to see the the typical British based overland equipped Landy station wagon with 2 tons of jerry cans plus god knows what else on the roof rack. It is easy to fit fuel and water tanks of over 50 gallons capacity underneath the truck. This keeps the COG low and is so much safer. Fit a winch, on board air, learn how and when to lower tyre pressures and leave the waffle boards at home. my choice would be an internal cage and a swing up Doormobile type roof lid for quick and easy camping. Bill. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted October 5, 2006 Share Posted October 5, 2006 Yup, Or a nice light weight roof tent IF you have to go that way. It's not like there wern't loads of sleeping options. It's like the second spare wheel. Why? Take a spare carcass if you have to BUT do take a decent puncture repair kit. Don't fit anything but Hankook, Michelin or Cooper Cooking - gas is nice but wait until you are in central africa or Kasakstan to try and get more... Hey ho Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBMUD Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 If I were adding a roof tent then it would be on the front. The reason being that, once loaded, there is plenty of weight over the back axle without adding any more! Whatever the other options for camping from a practicality perspective, I for one would feel much less vulnerable sleeping in a roof tent. Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
white90 Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 who is fitting/making the cage? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honitonhobbit Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Yup,Or a nice light weight roof tent IF you have to go that way. It's not like there wern't loads of sleeping options. It's like the second spare wheel. Why? Take a spare carcass if you have to BUT do take a decent puncture repair kit. Don't fit anything but Hankook, Michelin or Cooper Cooking - gas is nice but wait until you are in central africa or Kasakstan to try and get more... Hey ho Also - most cooking is done on the open back door so all those lovely cooking smells and all that lovely food grease makes your roof tent like a students bedsit. Also 2 - access to the roof tent via the bonnet is much easier after a couple of scotches Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happyoldgit Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Also - most cooking is done on the open back door so all those lovely cooking smells and all that lovely food grease makes your roof tent like a students bedsit.Also 2 - access to the roof tent via the bonnet is much easier after a couple of scotches Yup, plus adapt the tent ladder so it secures to bull or A bar at the front which is far more secure than just having it resting on the ground at the back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpk Posted October 6, 2006 Author Share Posted October 6, 2006 Thank you one and all for your ideas and opinions. I think the big thing here is that what is useless to one person is essential to another. I am not fussed about where I sleep but the bosslady is scared of creepy-crawlys so a roof tent it is. As for a cage, I agree it is by no means essential, but having worked as an overland tour guide in Southern Africa I have seen enough flattened 110's to think it's a damn good idea. Chris at Exact Fabrication is doing the cage so of course I'll discuss final design with him. I quite like the idea of the tent on the front with the ladder on the winch bumper if for no other reason than it allows a quick getaway if undesirables come knocking. Fuel and water will all be down low. It will basically just be tent and light goodies up top. The car is currently being painted so once its all done I'll post some piccies. Should look spiffy. All the planning and preparation is fun but really all I want to do is get out there and bumble around the desert and the bush for a while. Thank you again and keep it coming. JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turbocharger Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Following my trip around Yoo-rope last week - take as little stuff as if you were backpacking, plus a few spares and tools for the car. Drive risk-averse, don't do anything stupid where you'll need your winch / sand ladders and you'll be fine. I'd add tie-down points all over the cage - I welded small exhaust clamps to my cage and they're a boon for ratcheting stuff down in the back and on the roof. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jen Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 At the end of the day you have to fit what suits you, don't just go for kit 'because someone else has got it and say's it's good', by allmeans talk to people and get a variety of opinions, but go and live out of your truck for a week or two in this country and figure out what you want/don't want/can't live without. We fit as little as possible high up (which is a joke as we've got a Camel and all the weights up high anyway!), but have found the spotlights invaluable and the bush wires useful, but again, it depends where you're going and what your long term travel plans are. If in doubt, do as much on the rollcage as possible, you don't need to mount everything on there perminatly. Wood is heavy and will rot eventually, we removed ours. We've kitted the camel up with things we wanted, but carefully considered, for example, the roof tent is the lightest we could get - it's fitted to teh front of the roof rack because of the jerry can holders on the rear and mounted as low as possible, in fact, it only rises above the roof rack by a couple of inches. We put it on the drivers side so the awning could go on the passengers and you'd be able to use the passenger seat as an extra seat under the awning if needed. We didn't have it coming out over the front because we wanted to mount it low and it would have meant hingeing the front of the roof rack with the lights etc. more hasstle than it's worth and much easier to hinge the side! The roof tent IMHO is invaluable. It takes us 1min 28sec to put up and as we move everynight putting the ground tent up gets tedious, especially in the rain. We also are getting a small storm tent for really bad weather, the roof tents stood up to gales, thunder and torential downpour without probelms, but the storm tents alot cheaper to get wrecked There's and endless amount of equipment you could get, but some good chairs and awning and a 'proper' fridge have proved most valuable to us When we go away long term we'll take the high lift and waffles, both mounted as low as possible, we already have duel fuel tanks and will have a small burner which can run on virtually any fuel, 'camping megastore' is good for this sort of equipment. We'll still have our proper gas cooker for travel in western countries though, I need my grill! At the end of the day - see as many kitted out trucks as you can (not necessarily the ones tht have had £1000's spent on them) and steal everyone's good ideas!! The Crichton's (sp?) (Chasing Rainbows book) are worth talking too and at most Landy show's, they proved with their old disco you can go most places with a little inginuity. get on some of the expedition forums, lots of people that have done lots of things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeagent Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 don't take too much notice of the 'i drove round the world twice, and all i took was a swiss army knife and a spare pair of pants' brigade.... we all have different needs and priorities.... Jens advice is all pretty sound, i too would always choose a rooftent, ours takes about 3-4 mins to set up (most of that is removing the cover) it doesn't matter where you camp, either concrete or deep sand, you don't need to bother with pegs.... and you've always got a comfortable bed... which is important to me if i've been driving all day.. look at everything you take, and say to yourself "do i realy need that" we took far too much stuff to morocco... but its a learning curve... when we do it again we'll be getting a proper engel fridge (although the plug-in coolbox did a good job) and either on-board air or a faster lecky compressor... i'd take about half the clothes, and just do more washing, and probably less tools and spares.... i like your idea about using the cage as a rack, because some racks weigh over 30kg empty, so at least you are not bolting that on aswell.. we put our tent at the back so we could shelter under it if the weather was bad.. i don't like the idea of cooking on the back door very much so grease and steam on the bottom of the tent wasn't realy an issue... ..although to be honest, unless you live on fried food its not realy an issue anyway. if you go to the shows, look at all the expedition trucks on peoples stands but remember, they are there to sell you stuff, so of course they'll say you need everything. i did a pretty awesome trip across the snowy mountains in Australia a few years back, in bog-standard leaf sprung toyotas... which does go to show that it can be done lite hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headhunter Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 jpk Excellent choice for your cage fabricator. When you design the cage with Exact Fabrication think about how you are going to fit the roof tent. You could avoid having a roof rack if the tent will mount directly, saving some weight. A small rack can then be added to the cage for other bits, or fit mounts to the cage for the dedicated items to go on the roof. As someone else suggested you may wish to fit an awning so consider what will fit to a cage and evaluate what fixings you need. As for water & fuel Safari-equip in Bradford do a 56 litre water tank that fits under the drivers side. Over £350 so not cheap. Foley's do a rear quarter fuel (offside) and water (nearside) tank in stainless steel for around £195+VAT, Both with a capacity of 40-45 litres or thereabouts. This will all help keep your C of G as low as possible. As for roof tents I use a Hannibal Zulu clam shell (Weight is c55kg.) style that is a hard case and hinges from one end. It takes seconds to erect and pack and you can leave bedding and quite a lot of clothes inside when travelling. It is rain and dust protected and allows easier dressing as you can almost stand up at the high end. For cooking I use a single burner camping gaz bistro actif with the disposable cartridge in the UK/EU, backed up by a single burner denatured (meths) burner Electrolux Origo (Swedish) should I need additional cooking and for further afield if gas is difficult to source. These both fit in the Mobile Storage Systems rear door cooker shelf, which keeps everything safe whilst cooking. You can fit higher rated springs if necessary or additional springs inserted inside the rear set, or Simmonites supply rear air spring inserts driven by a small compressor. I am sure there will be lots more advice from others, no doubt some conflicting, so you have to pick the best to suit your own set-up and plans. John Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiscoDino Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Can't add much more to the above mentioned other than further highlight the weight issue...suggest you check your kit and see what is light and what can be put up there... I'd prefer to put my fluffy sleeping pads and "auxiliary rain/cold" clothing up there than a 20kg jerry can... If you are running waffles, put them on either side of the truck between the C and D pillar, highlift on the very back, extended fuel tanks, replace one of the rear seats with a huge cooler and the other side with water tanks in the footwells... Keep the heavier items down, and the lighter/fluffy ones on top...so if you are manufacturing the cage from scratch, you can have the luxury to mutate it to that need... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpk Posted October 6, 2006 Author Share Posted October 6, 2006 Thanks guys. A lot of what you say confirms what I thought and some of it has made me think about what I had planned to do. Ta very much for everyones contributions. Muchos Gracias JP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rejo Posted October 6, 2006 Share Posted October 6, 2006 Hi Jpk "I quite like the idea of the tent on the front with the ladder on the winch bumper if for no other reason than it allows a quick getaway if undesirables come knocking" Dont want to scare you but if they come knocking then they have probably already made sure that you cant drive away by blocking your wheels before they knock. Spent a year in driving through africa so if you need any tips or tricks drop me a line, personnally would have as little wieght up top as possible, all we had on the roof was a tent and maybe some wood for cooking with if we came across any. Whatever happens your sure to have a great time and meet all types of people, ranging from complete "Persons Resembling a Pink Starfish" through to robbing twats and somewhere between all this are some genuine people who are doing the same as you are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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